MPs 'back helping patients to die'

Majority of MPs back allowing doctors to help patients to die in some circumstances, poll finds

A majority of MPs think doctors should be allowed to help people to die in certain circumstances, according to a new survey.

More than half of MPs (53%) do not think a doctor in England or Wales should be prosecuted for helping a terminally ill, mentally competent, adult patient to die when directly requested to do so by the patient, the study found.

The organisation Dignity in Dying, which commissioned the Ipsos Mori poll, said views were changing among decision makers at Westminster.

It said previous surveys of MPs had shown high levels of opposition to change in the law - a 1995 poll had found that 70% of MPs opposed the introduction of voluntary euthanasia, with opposition rising to 79% of MPs in 2004.

A spokeswoman added: "Such levels of opposition are at odds with public opinion, with polls consistently showing overwhelming public support for a change in the law."

An Ipsos Mori poll on behalf of the organisation in June found that 76% of adults across England and Wales did not think a family member or friend should be prosecuted for enabling or assisting a terminally ill but mentally competent adult to travel abroad to have an assisted death in a country where it was legal.

In the survey of MPs, to which 112 responded, 53% said that "if a doctor in England or Wales helps a terminally ill, mentally competent adult patient to die when directly requested to do so, by the patient" the doctor should not be prosecuted.

Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said: "Whilst we must be careful about directly extrapolating from this survey, it does raise hopes that the campaign for a change in the law to give terminally ill, mentally competent adults the choice of an assisted death, which is overwhelmingly supported by the public, is now beginning to resonate with decision-makers in Westminster.

"Surveys of MPs' opinions when compared with public opinion polls indicated that MPs and the public are poles apart on this issue. However, this survey indicates that the gap may be narrowing."